Lash Menu Illustrations

I'm excited to share these new "lash menu" sketches I was commissioned to draw for Lash Affair Lounge. They asked me to illustrate an assortment of lash extensions offered in the new salon. I had no idea you could get lash looks ranging from a natural, soft and pretty lash boost, like "The Beauty" shown above, to intense dramatic fullness like "The Diva" shown below.

Whats funny for me about illustrating a lash menu is that I was taught not to draw tiny details like eyelashes, nails or teeth in fashion illustrations. In the past few years, especially with all my bridal illustration clients and the dramatic lash making a comeback, I've rebelled and began adding lashes to my sketches but I have to admit I feel guilty every time and wonder what my professors would say. Crazy right! (Its true, every-single-time I sketch a lash I see FIT Professor Steven Stipleman shaking his head at me.)

This was my first foray into illustrating a lash menu (hair and nails, I've drawn a few.) I'm really proud of how all these lashy ladies came out and I'm pretty sure the client, Lash Affair Lounge, loves them as well. Now I just need to get myself up to Edmonton Cananda to try out their lash services like mink lash extensions. I mean how luxuriously Oprah would that be? Fingers crossed theres a Lash Affair Lounge hitting Manhattan in the not so distant future because my lashes could use a boost.

College Sketches: Val & Bridget

I'm excited to share these sketches I drew years ago in a college model drawing class (at FIT) as well as offer them as new prints in my shop. What made me want to revisit some of my college class work was something that someone recently posted on my Facebook fan page. They asked if I was ever going to draw "real women" who were not a size zero. Although I myself am no where near that size, it is my illustrative style to draw very elongated, albeit unrealistic, fashion figures.

These two fashion illustrations however were drawn from plus size models. The models posed for us for the overall stance and attitude of the sketch, then we drew garments on them based off images of our choosing. I went with two Valentino designs from a magazine editorial. The little black dress drawn on "Val" (aptly named after Valentino;) is from a 1997 collection and the elaborate taupe mini dress and feathered bag on "Bridget" are from a 2002 collection. (Luckily I had made notes besides the sketches so I can share the source info with you.) Hope you like these illustrations from my college archives.

Whitney Houston

"It's amazing how people we've never met can touch our lives so much, how their work can become bookmarks for definitive moments in our lives and how we can truly love them from afar." My friend, designer Aaron Potts posted this a few days ago on Facebook in reference to the death of Whitney Houston and I couldn't agree more.

Today Whitney Houston is being laid to rest and I can't begin to explain how devastatingly sad I am. Whitney's The Greatest Love Of All was my very first cassette, The Bodyguard was my first CD, and for my college application to FIT I designed a concert wardrobe for her as my fashion design art test.

I would have loved to share my Whitney sketches with you, however they are packed away in storage with the rest of my college work, so better yet I'm sharing the work of my friend, Aaron Potts. Aaron, in collaboration with Kaufman Franco, sketched many gowns for Whitney that she and her stylists then chose from.

Whitney, I will always love you.

My Blog Goes to College

A little while ago I was contacted by representatives from the Style Design College. They are fans of Fabulous Doodles and asked if I would give approval for some of my posts to be used in within their curriculum. I'm so honored that select illustrations of mine, tutorials, and photo's will be used to help teach aspiring designers and illustrators. Style Design College has campuses in Milan, Italy and South Africa. For more about them, click here.

(Images above from my blog archive; Sequin Tutorial, Secret Weapons (tools), E-Drop Off (commission), Face It.)